Wireless local loop systems are used in remote locations which typically have electricity but do not have telephone service. Instead of spending money on providing a wireline telephone service, it is typically easier to use a wireless local loop system. The wireless local loop system allows a user to operate a telephone at a remote site. The typical wireless local loop system includes at least one telephone device which is connected to an interface which in turn is connected to a radio telephone transceiver (either cellular or other wireless systems). The combination of the telephone device or devices and the remote radio telephone transceiver is referred to as the “subscriber unit.”
In a wireless local loop system, the link from the subscriber unit to the telephone system, for example, the local-exchange switch, is provided at least partially by a wireless communication channel. For example in a cellular wireless local loop (WLL) system, each subscriber unit is in a fixed location and communicates with a cellular radio base station responsible for all subscriber units within a cell. Sets of subscriber units communicate with one or more base stations which in turn are connected to the rest of the telephone network, typically a local exchange switch or other voice switching communications network router.
A caller cannot place a call in a wireless local loop system without a communication link existing between the subscriber unit and telephone system, including a wireless communication channel between the subscriber unit and the base station. In a typical wireless local loop system, there are usually more subscriber units than available wireless communication channels for audio links. Therefore in an emergency situation, a caller might not be able to make an emergency call because there are no wireless communication channels available.
In wireless telephone systems, the failure to obtain an open communication channel to place a telephone call is an “accepted evil.” However if someone is trying to place an emergency call, this accepted evil can be fatal. In an emergency, it is imperative that a caller be able to dial an emergency telephone number. An emergency telephone number can be “911” or the telephone number for the police, ambulance, fire department, poison control, or another known emergency telephone number.
A wireless local loop system subscriber unit may have a locally generated dial tone to simulate the “look and feel” of a conventional wireline telephone device when the handset is taken “off hook.” Alternatively, detecting an off hook condition on the telephone device of the subscriber unit may lead to a channel assignment request being made to a base station. Once a wireless channel is assigned, this being a channel for an audio link, a dial tone is generated by the switch and transmitted to the subscriber unit as in conventional wireline systems. The embodiments of the present invention are more suitable to this second case but may be used in both cases. The embodiments of the present invention also are suitable for use in a regular cellular system wherein the subscriber units are not necessarily fixed in location and may not necessarily be attached to a “plain old telephone set” (POTS).
In a wireless local loop system in which a dial tone is not generated until an audio-grade communication channel is assigned from the subscriber unit to the local switch, three things must occur in order to allow a caller to dial an emergency number without the presence of a dial tone: 1) the caller must be able to dial a telephone number, even without requiring a switch-generated dial tone or indeed any dial tone to be present, 2) the telephone number dialed must be recognized in some manner as an emergency call, and 3) the call must be placed if indeed it is recognized as an emergency call. Present day wireless telephone systems, whether wired or not, do not allow a call to be placed in this manner.
Therefore there is a need for a telephone system which activates an emergency call recognition system, recognizes when an emergency number is dialed and provides a communication channel for the caller to complete such a call even at maximum capacity. Such a system also would cut off or otherwise compromise the service quality of those calls that are not emergency calls when the system is operating at such maximum capacity.